Just a matter of perspective
by Goth-Punk88
Summary: As it turns out, flirting is a matter of perspective; it's just rotten luck Eren doesn't seem to know the first thing about it. — Eren/Annie.


**Notes:** This was inspired by a request posted in the SnK Kink Meme. The request was the following: "_5 times Annie tried flirting with him and it went right past his head and 1 time he flirted back and she didn't even notice_." All credit goes to the anon who came up with the idea!

**A special thanks to:** This story probably wouldn't have seen the light of day if it weren't for the wonderful _Queen Happo_, who kindly beta-read it for me. Thank you so much, again! Also, thank you all who supported my first Eren/Annie one-shot; I truly appreciate it.

**Warnings:** Some liberties taken with their portrayal, all in good humor.

**just a matter of perspective**

by kanae

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**1.**

A chilly wind blows by as Annie straightens, dusting off her pants. She looks up at the sky, absentmindedly flicking a few strands of hair from her face.

It will be winter soon.

Eren lets out a pained groan, catching Annie's attention. He is still sprawled on the ground, probably wondering just where his technique had gone wrong; the corner of her lips quirk upward at the thought. He incessantly complains about her roughness; _you're merciless_, _Annie_ he says. _Damn, that hurt!_ He cries.

Yet, he will always seek her out the following day. Over and over, rinse and repeat.

She doesn't know what to make of him half the time. That irks her, sometimes; but for better or for worse, she can never seem to stay away from him for long.

That seems to be a trait they share.

Annie licks her dry lips.

"Hey…"

Eren gives her an inquiring but guarded look, obviously expecting some kind of dry remark about his dubious progress. Knowing that she is about to deliver just about the opposite, Annie averts her eyes. "That wasn't half bad just now… it's the closest you've gotten to pulling it off yet. We can keep going, if you want to," she gives a casual shrug, "I don't mind."

When Annie allows her gaze to land on him again, she finds Eren giving her a bemused look. "… Are you a sadist?"

Annie blinks. "_What_?"

"Heh, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you actually _enjoy_ seeing me eating dirt, Annie," he teases, half-serious. Annie tenses.

"… And if _I_ didn't know any better," she drawls, pulling out her wooden knife, "I'd say you actually enjoy me kicking your ass. Are you a masochist, Eren?"

Survival instinct kicking in, Eren swallows hard, resisting the urge to cower back in terror at the advancing blonde. "Wai… _wait_, Annie! There's something called joke, have you ever heard of—_argh_!"

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**2.**

They kneel by the riverside and dip in their empty canteens. The cool water brushes her sore knuckles, and Annie is half surprised at realizing it has been a while since she has felt her hands ache like this. One look at the grimace in Eren's face tells her his hands were not only sore, but bruised, and she makes a mental note to teach him the proper way of striking tomorrow.

Still, Eren remains with his hands in the water long after Annie is done replenishing her canteen and retying it to her belt. His expression has changed to a thoughtful one, eyes firm and resolute, and Annie can imagine the gears of his head turning; can picture him weighting his wounds and how much closer his improvement brings him to his goal of joining the Scouting Legion.

The thought makes her feel uncomfortable in an unwelcome way, and she calls out to him. Once he is out of his reverie, Annie nods towards the darkening sky. "It's getting dark. We should head back."

Eren livens up and gets a certain look in his eye; one that has become a little too familiar to her. "Huh. Don't tell me you're scared of the dark, Annie."

She nearly rolls his eyes at his predictable jab. Then she thinks better of it. "… Isn't it to be expected?" she says instead. He looks at her with something akin to astonishment, and Annie is careful not to meet his gaze as she tucks her bangs behind her ear. "… I'm a frail, young girl after all, aren't I?"

"_Haaah_?"

For a moment, Annie almost feels embarrassed; _almost_. But then she risks a look at him only to find him blinking at her, face blank, and it comes to a grounding halt.

"Geez, Annie, stop pulling my leg, will ya?" he starts, crouching down to pick up his discarded jacket. If only Eren had half a mind, he would have realized the danger lurking behind the apparent calmness of Annie's eyes. "If you want me to buy _that_, you should start by _acting_ like a girl!"

Annie had suddenly gone silent, and it didn't occur to him to wonder why until he saw her shadow looming over him.

A cold shiver runs down his spine. "H—_hey_, Annie—"

By the time she is done with him, Eren is sprawled on the ground and Annie is comfortably sitting atop him.

She pretends not to hear his complaints.

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**3.**

It's her third year in the squad, but Annie does not find the customary spring cleaning any less bothersome. All the trainees are out and about; some are washing new sheets and throwing away the ones that are too old and faded to be of any use; others are making an inventory of the equipment that needed replacement; others, helping clean the training grounds. The rest chose to clean the shacks.

Annie is among the latter. She had managed to ditch Connie and Sasha's offer of teaming up together, planning to carry out her part and then sneak away as soon as everyone got busy; but Eren threw off her plans by showing up out of nowhere and self-appointing himself as her partner, broom in hand and all.

Annie had only been half surprised; lately, Eren seems to have gotten the habit of tagging along whenever she isn't with Mina Carolina. Not that she minds.

Still, his behavior makes her feel a little curious. And there is something she wants to make sure of.

"… Are you sure you should be following me around like this?"

"What do you mean?"

She gives him a look from the corner of her eye, acutely watching for his reaction. "… Mikasa might get jealous, you know."

Eren, unsurprisingly, looks baffled at the mere possibility. "Hah? What are you going on about now?"

"Well," Annie starts, expression nonchalant and tone deceptively innocent. "You have been spending an awful lot of time with another girl, haven't you? It might give her the wrong idea."

Eren scoffs a bit. "What is it to Mikasa whether I spend time with you or not? That's our business, not hers!"

A faint smile flits onto Annie's face, though she knows he cannot see it from his position. Before she can even think of letting it show, Eren snorts.

"Besides, it's just you. People would be _crazy_ to think you out of all people would waste your time with _that_ kind of stuff!"

Annie stops dead in her tracks, fleeting satisfaction nowhere to be found.

_You've got to be kidding me._

When Eren looks back over his shoulder, he is greeted with the sight of Annie examining him with what could have passed for a disconcerted expression on just about anyone else.

"…What is it, Annie?" he demands, feeling awkward all of a sudden. "Was it something I said?"

Annie just shakes her head, by now too baffled to even feel irritated. "I've always thought those who play soldier were ridiculous fools… but you must be a new brand of stupid."

"What the hell?! Hey, Annie! Get back here!"

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**4.**

Eren's concentration takes a turn for the worse, becoming confusion and then lapsing into frustration; his short temper and impatient nature getting the best of him, as per usual. Annie quietly watches it all happen, knowing it is only a matter of time before he reaches the boiling point.

Sure enough, five minutes later Eren pushes the textbook away with a groan and massages his neck. "Ugh, how were we supposed to go about this, again?"

Annie all but sighs, flipping a page of her book. He had come to the wrong place if he expected help; she couldn't care less about craftsmanship. "Why don't you ask Armin?"

Eren shakes his head, absentmindedly. "Can't. He's got his hands busy with Reiner and the rest of the class already, and I kind of told him I had this under control."

Annie flips another page. "Maybe you shouldn't have lied."

Eren gives her a dry look. "You aren't being of much help, Annie."

"I only offered to teach you my techniques, not tutor you. There's a limit to my good will."

"Come on, Annie! You damn near got a perfect score last time, and it's not like you've got anything else to do." Before she can object, he continues, "Don't try to tell me you're reading that crap, I know you finished it already!"

Annie can only blink with surprise. Just _how_ did he know that?

Eren seems to figure out her thoughts for a change, because he waves a hand dismissively. "I remember the cover; you carried it around everywhere last month but then you just stopped. I figured you were done with it already. Was I wrong?"

"…No," she admits, half begrudgingly, after a short pause in which the only thing she is seemingly capable of thinking is _so he has been watching me?_

Eren smirks; either oblivious to what he has just disclosed to her, or of what it could mean. Both are just as likely when it comes to him, so Annie wastes no time trying to figure it out. "See? Now, can you just help me out here?"

She turns her head just slightly, darting him a glance, and then she says, "So if I do it, what's in it for me?"

"Huh?"

Having already expected such a clueless reaction from him, Annie turns her head and gazes into his eyes with a level look. "What's in it for me, if I do you this favor? You should do something for me in return, right?"

"Huh…? Are you serious?" Annie's stern expression does all the talking for her, and Eren winds up sighing. "Well, what do you _want_ me to do?" he grunts, giving her a prodding look.

Annie finds herself looking away first. "…You're the man, Eren. You should take charge, for once."

Eren examines her with bleary eyes. "…What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

Annie has to make a conscious effort to keep herself from massaging her temples. "…You _really_ do need to learn how to talk to girls."

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**5**.

Every time he manages to grapple her, Eren gives her a wild grin, eyes alight and brimming with satisfaction and adrenaline, and it will make Annie remain still in his hold for just a bit longer; let him enjoy his supposed victory for a few extra seconds before turning the tables and kicking his ass into gear.

This time is no exception.

"Ugh, damn it! I thought I had you, Annie!" Eren groans once Annie finishes rolling them over after having applied a triangle choke. She can't help but smirk with amusement at his palpable frustration.

"Haah?… If you liked being on top so much, you could have just said so."

She doesn't realize how wrong her statement sounds until it has left her lips, and by then it's too late to make amends. If it were that idiot Jean underneath her, the boy would have already gone scarlet. But it's Eren, and so the awkwardness does not come. What comes instead is a morbid sort of curiosity; just _how_ far does Eren's thick-headedness really run, Annie wonders.

Maybe it's her curiosity, or perhaps it's the fresh memory of that rogue grin of his or the position they're in. Annie can't be entirely sure. Whatever it is, it makes her lower her face closer to his and decide to take her usual harmless teasing a little further.

"…I don't mind being topped, you know?" she says quietly, eyes going dangerously half-lidded.

It takes a couple of seconds but then a jolt of _something_ flickers through Eren's eyes. It's entirely unexpected and it makes Annie take a sudden intake of breath. _Could it be…?_

The thought hasn't even finished forming when that something—whatever it was—is gone and replaced by his usual obstinacy as he frowns up at her. "You have a funny way of showing it, getting me on the floor all the damn time."

Annie stares at him for a long moment and then lets out a displeased sigh.

"… You're a lost cause, Eren," she says at last, coolly rising to her feet.

_What else did I expect?_

"Hey, Annie, wait a sec! We're not done here!"

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**0.**

After staring at the back of her blonde head for the best part of half an hour, Eren makes up his mind.

"Hey, Annie,"

She takes her sweet time to look away from the window, but Eren is already too used to her ways to take her apparent indifference to heart. "Say, wanna go spar?"

Annie gives him a rather pointed stare of the _are you serious?_ kind. Eren simply grins in response. "…Today's our day off, Eren," she concedes, and hearing her voice alone makes his grin widen a notch.

"_Exactly_!" he says, as if that explained everything, and punches his open palm with his fist for good measure.

If he expected his enthusiasm to move her, he is dead wrong.

"… Sorry, not happening."

Eren's face falls. "Huh? _Why_?"

He must have sounded pathetic, because Annie scoffs a little and goes back to staring at nothing, "Because I'm not in the mood."

Her behavior makes him falter, but Eren won't be so easily deterred. "Let's do something else, then," he suggests.

That gives Annie pause. She cocks her head to the side; just enough to give him a faintly curious look. "… Like what?"

"Well…"

Annie arches one eyebrow at him. Eren swallows, mind going blank.

Having Annie's attention always makes him feel anxious in a odd way; he doesn't know what it is about her that makes him always wind up blurting out the first thing that comes to mind, no matter how lame. He knows he isn't exactly the most thoughtful of guys, but he swears he isn't _this_ bad with anyone but her.

Eren feels the by now familiar irritation beginning to rear its ugly head, and he racks his brain trying to think of something that won't make a fool out of him.

_Think, Eren, think! There must be something we can do_, _right?_

An idea pops into his mind and Eren lights up. "How about we go practice our 3DGM? Everyone's slacking off, so we'll have the targets to ourselves. You _do_ care about that score, don't you?"

The grin which has wormed its way back to Eren's face disappears at being met with Annie's utter disinterest. "I'll pass."

"Annie—" Eren reaches out, but Annie gets up before he can touch her.

"If you're so intent on training, go find someone else," she says simply, and then walks past him.

Eren remains rooted to his spot, not tearing his eyes away from her until she's out of the shack; probably off to somewhere she wouldn't have to deal with his idiocy.

_Damn it._

He walks over and slumps into her empty chair, looking dejected.

"Heh, Annie's not in a good mood today, is she?" comes Reiner's voice. It seems the large boy has overheard their whole conversation, because he places a sympathetic hand on Eren's slouched shoulders. "Tell you what; if you want to train that badly, I can lend you a hand, Eren. It's not like I've got anything better to do around here."

Eren seems to consider his offer for a moment, but then shakes his head. "Nah, it's okay, Reiner… I think I'll just give it a rest for today," he tells him with a faint smile, just bordering on bitter.

Reiner gave him an odd look in return. "Are you sure, Eren? You did sound pretty eager to get some training done when you were talking to Annie just now."

"Ah, that's not what it…" whatever it was Eren was about to say, he seems to think better of it, because he snaps his mouth shut and goes very still. "Nevermind, Reiner. Thanks, anyway."

Eren gets up from the chair and starts toward the door, away from Reiner's perplexed stare. He isn't about to admit that he wants to spend time with Annie; Reiner would ask why, and what would he say to that?

Just _because_? It's the truth, yeah, but it would sound… well, _weird_.

Eren doesn't even know why; it just _would_.

_I've just gotten too used to her, is all_.

And if there's a part of him that isn't satisfied by that answer, it keeps its mouth tightly shut.

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**End.**

I meant it when I said these two were taking over my muse, haha. I went for a slightly different take on their dynamic this time around, so here is to hoping it made for an enjoyable read.

Thanks a lot for reading!


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